Obviously, this incident highlighted Fehrnstrom’s temper. But it also showed just how highly Romney values his aide. Even after the incident became news, and the state mayoral association demanded that Fehrnstrom be reprimanded, Romney refused to sanction him; Fehrnstrom’s written apology to Barrett settled matters, Romney insisted.

A controversy toward the close of Romney’s gubernatorial term made much the same point. In November 2006, the Globe reported that Romney had appointed Fehrnstrom to the Brookline Housing Authority. The posting itself wasn’t lucrative (it paid only $5000 annually), but it would have made Fehrnstrom eligible for a state pension when he reached retirement age. And given his salary history — at the time, Fehrnstrom reportedly was making $160,000 — that pension would have been a whopper. (In Massachusetts, pensions are set by the recipients’ three highest earning years.)

Given Romney’s carefully cultivated image as a Beacon Hill reformer, the story was catnip to the press. Romney defended the appointment, saying that Fehrnstrom’s future pension gains were a nonissue. But Fehrnstrom gave it up two days later, saying he wanted to protect Romney from “unwarranted political attacks.” Still, the fact remains: by giving Fehrnstrom such a high-profile role in his presidential campaign, Romney is practically goading his rivals — and the press — to subject his “reformer” persona to further scrutiny.

Why is Romney so loyal? First, consider the situation he faced when he returned from Utah, where he’d helped salvage the Salt Lake City Olympics, to run for governor. His unsuccessful 1994 run against Ted Kennedy notwithstanding, Romney had precious little experience navigating Beacon Hill and working the Boston media. Fehrnstrom was the opposite. After covering the State House for the Herald, and then working as a spokesman for Republican state treasurer Joe Malone, Fehrnstrom was intimately acquainted with both sides of the press-politics equation.

“Romney hadn’t really been in the trenches of Massachusetts politics — and there you have Fehrnstrom,” says another journalist who asked not to be named. “He knows all the players, he’s savvy about how it all works, and he’s willing to get in the trenches and deflect a lot of the crossfire. I would guess that Romney found him invaluable in those years.”

But the tie between the two men runs deeper. Romney was averse to the sort of casual, unscripted encounters that career politicians take for granted and often enjoy. (He’d also seen his own father’s presidential campaign implode due to an inopportune off-the-cuff comment.)

For his part, Fehrnstrom had private-sector experience of his own: when Romney came back from Utah, he was a spokesman for Hill, Holliday, the high-powered Boston advertising firm. And along with Beth Myers — who’d been Malone’s chief of staff before taking the same post with Romney — he proved adept at running the new governor’s communications operation in a suitably cautious and corporate manner. (Myers is now running Romney’s presidential campaign.) The governor’s shabby press room got a fancy makeover. Democratic operatives were barred from press conferences. And Fehrnstrom became the conduit through whom any and all requests for comment had to pass. As governor, Romney couldn’t stay quite as insulated as he’d been during his Bain Capital days. But he came close.

The presidential hunt Mitt Romney and his staff don’t leave home without their American Express cards — which gives the rest of us a chance to see exactly how, and where, they’ve been spending their gubernatorial campaign funds.

Romney’s greatest gaffes — so far All of a sudden, Massachusetts is America’s poster child for health-care reform — and nobody’s happier about that than Governor Mitt Romney, who, as a result, has become a popular dark-horse pick for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

Healey gets it wrong First the good news: the Massachusetts State Senate and House of Representatives have voted to legalize over-the-counter pharmacy sales of hypodermic needles to those over 18 years old who provide adequate proof of their age.

Slow ride When the members of the Massachusetts Legislature run for re-election this fall, they’ll brag about the landmark health-care-reform legislation they passed earlier this month. What they won’t mention — if they’re smart — is all the other important business they neglected while health care dominated Beacon Hill.

Whither the GOP? Ask people to name the leading voice of opposition on Beacon Hill these days, and you’re likely to be told House Speaker Sal DiMasi.

Go for the gelt Much has been made of how Mitt Romney has been courting evangelical-Christian support for his presidential ambitions. But Romney is also seeking friends — and, more important, money — among Jews.

Deval’s New Hampshire Dilemma Mitt Romney has left Deval Patrick a full raft of problems, from last Friday’s out-of-the-blue unilateral cuts to the state budget to a broken downtown tunnel system people are afraid to drive through.

BULLY FOR BU! | March 12, 2010 After six years at the Phoenix , I recently got my first pre-emptive libel threat. It came, most unexpectedly, from an investigative reporter. And beyond the fact that this struck me as a blatant attempt at intimidation, it demonstrated how tricky journalism's new, collaboration-driven future could be.

STOP THE QUINN-SANITY! | March 03, 2010 The year is still young, but when the time comes to look back at 2010's media lowlights, the embarrassing demise of Sally Quinn's Washington Post column, "The Party," will almost certainly rank near the top of the list.

RIGHT CLICK | February 19, 2010 Back in February 2007, a few months after a political neophyte named Deval Patrick cruised to victory in the Massachusetts governor's race with help from a political blog named Blue Mass Group (BMG) — which whipped up pro-Patrick sentiment while aggressively rebutting the governor-to-be's critics — I sized up a recent conservative entry in the local blogosphere.

RANSOM NOTES | February 12, 2010 While reporting from Afghanistan two years ago, David Rohde became, for the second time in his career, an unwilling participant rather than an observer. On October 29, 1995, Rohde had been arrested by Bosnian Serbs. And then in November 2008, Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were en route to an interview with a Taliban commander when they were kidnapped.

POOR RECEPTION | February 08, 2010 The right loves to rant against the "liberal-media elite," but there's one key media sector where the conservative id reigns supreme: talk radio.